# BRD-257 — Keep the appeal explanation inside its limit

> The appeal explanation must be no longer than 1,024 characters.

- **Rule ID:** BRD-257
- **Layer:** Brand (`BRAND`)
- **Checks:** `appeal.explanation`
- **Severity:** MEDIUM — Usually survives review, but lowers your trust score or invites manual review.
- **When it bites:** Gates approval — get this wrong and registration is refused
- **How it is detected:** Deterministic (settled in code from the submitted values)
- **Fix type:** Fix the field — a better value in the form clears it
- **Required by:** TCR
- **Applies:** Applies to every 10DLC registration.
- **Canonical URL:** https://ekas.io/rules/10dlc/brand/brd-257/

## Why this rule exists

The field is silently bounded, and an appeal is exactly the moment someone writes at length — the whole history of the registration, every correction attempted. The submission is rejected on the length rather than truncated, so the work is lost along with the attempt.

## How to fix it

Write the explanation as three sentences: what was decided, what is wrong with it, and what the attached document proves. Put the detail in the attachments, which is where a reviewer looks anyway. Done when the field is under 1,024 characters.

## Example of a compliant value

```text
explanation: "The brand was refused as unverified. The legal name on the registration matches the attached CP-575 exactly, including the comma before LLC. The address matches the same letter. Please re-run verification against the attached document."
```

## Provider rejection codes

| Provider | Code | Resubmission allowed |
| --- | --- | --- |
| TCR | `501` | yes |